Google Secure Access is software you install on
your computer designed to let you establish a more secure WiFi connect, or so
the FAQ page says. A Google
engineer apparently developed this during his personal 20 percent time. While
the FAQ says it’s available for download at "certain Google WiFi locations in
the San Francisco Bay Area," I was able to download it from the UK. I haven’t
yet installed it to see if I could get a secure wireless connection through an
access point routed through Google, however.

All internet traffic you send and received is
encrypted and sent through Google. Google says in its privacypolicy that it may log
some of the pages you view. It says cookies aren’t logged and some query data is
stripped away. However, it probably still logs your IP and may have other ways
of knowing a particular person may be using the service.

Thank you for your interest in Google Web Accelerator. We have currently reached
our maximum capacity of users and are actively working to increase the number of
users we can support.

Five months later, Google doesn’t appear to have solved the "support"
problem, making it seem much more likely that the negative reaction to web
accelerator means it may never return or not for some lengthy period.

That leads to Nathan’s "pulls the other leg" headline over at InsideGoogle.
He, as with many others, assumes that web accelerator was a master plan to get
data from users as a means of improving search results.

Perhaps, but as I’ve said before, Google doesn’t need either Web Accelerator
or Google Secure Access for this. It already has millions of installed copies of
the Google Toolbar that, when advanced features are switched on, gives it plenty
of data about browsing habits of surfers — and data is has had access to for
years.

Both Web Accelerator and Google Secure Access could add to that data, but
they are giant, bandwidth intensive ways to get what can be gained more easily
through other methods.

So why offer these? Back whennews that
Google had invested in a broadband-over-powerlines company came out, the company
made it clear:

As part of our corporate mission, we are interested in promoting universal
access to the internet for users.

Google wants everyone online. Get everyone online, and you can more easily
ensure you’re routing them to Google information for searching the web,
searching video, whatever. And along the way, you’ll show them ads — targeted
to what they’re viewing, to where they are actually located (as Om’swritten) or
whatever. Which leads to the other key bit of news, the bids for a optical fiber
network.

The IP Media Monitor article says the network would be cheaper to construct
than some similar networks, maybe costing only $100 million, and be up and
running within months. The assumption is that offering video services is a chief
reason why Google wants the network.

The article also talks about the "last mile" problem and how it might be
closed by connecting the network to users through wireless. And hey, wouldn’t it
be cool if you had a bunch of people feeling more comfortable about wireless if
they had a secure connection? How about some software with that?

This week, both LinkedIn and Facebook are beefing up their paid social offerings in different ways, while Google seeks to cut off Adwords revenues for fake news sites. And might Google be favouring desktop over its own AMP in its upcoming mobile-first index?

Here we’ll take a look at the basic things you need to know in regards to search engine optimisation, a discipline that everyone in your organisation should at least be aware of, if not have a decent technical understanding.